The demise of our little shops and markets

It's been awhile since I've felt the need for a real moan but last Saturday I had every cause and so dear blog here it is.

All over Britain there are little shops and markets struggling to make a living. They are run by people who love what they do and want to offer a service to local people. But people just want to get in their cars and rush off to the big towns and cities and buy mass produced rubbish churned out by people working in sweat shops in third world countries. They don't give local traders a chance.

This was very evident in my lovely market last Saturday. We had some truly fabulous stalls selling truly fabulous stuff at unbelievable prices. We had beautiful hand made cards, less than half the price of those sold in shops. We had soaps and bath time toiletries and we had jewellery and home baking and pottery and clothes and on and on I could go. We advertised and advertised. But did anyone give us a chance? Nope. Hardly anyone popped in to see what we had. People are moaning and groaning about the state of the economy and how much Christmas is costing them but they could have come to our market and bought really unusual and individual gifts at a fraction of the cost of big stores. Gifts that would have meant something to their recipients because they were 'different' and 'unique'

It's so disheartening when no one will give you the opportunity to show what you can do and that causes traders to give up. How can you keep going when you don't sell anything? You can't.
But one day, when petrol is sooo expensive that no one can afford to drive their cars, people will have to think twice before they go rushing off to the cities to shop. And they will stop and look at their little towns and moan because there aren't any shops and markets and it will be their own fault. It is them I blame for killing our little shops and markets. And the sad thing is, they won't know what lovely shops and markets they had...until they are gone.